Aztec reaches Stage 2 decentralisation milestone

• Aztec achieved L2Beat's Stage 2 rating after revoking ownership of its rollup contract.
• The change made the contract immutable and removed administrator control over protocol upgrades.
• The milestone places Aztec among the most decentralised Ethereum layer-2 networks tracked by L2Beat.

Aztec, a privacy-focused Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) layer-2 network, reached Stage 2 status on L2Beat after an on-chain governance action revoked ownership of its rollup contract.

The milestone follows a broader industry trend in which layer-2 networks remove administrative controls to increase decentralisation and reduce reliance on privileged operators.

“Revoking ownership made the contract code immutable,” said Aztec in its announcement.

The governance action removed administrator authority over the rollup contract, preserved a user exit mechanism and aligned the network with L2Beat's requirements for its highest decentralisation classification.

L2Beat lists Stage 2 as its highest maturity tier for rollups, requiring immutable contracts, permissionless proof systems and user withdrawal mechanisms, while Following the announcement no token price or financial impact was disclosed.

Aztec said its network provides native transaction privacy through zero-knowledge proof technology, which allows information to be verified without revealing underlying data.

The development follows Aztec Labs' acquisition of ZKPassport and comes weeks after a separate incident involving the deprecated Aztec Connect infrastructure, which is distinct from the current rollup network.

At the time of reporting, Ethereum price was $1,726.10.